Sounds of Solitude

One word spoken at the right time nearly 40 years ago was the final encouragement it took to get Lesley and Bill Moore to buy their cherished waterfront holiday property in the Marlborough Sounds.

Every summer for several weeks, the Christchurch domiciled Moores would reserve the same piece of grass beside the foreshore of a bay in Queen Charlotte Sound where relatives had holiday houses.

One day an opportunity to buy a prime spot just a five-minute boat ride away presented itself. The elderly, long-term owners of 'Brae Burn Cottage' were selling. The prospect of owning a characterful cottage which sat in splendid isolation on a sheltered Queen Charlotte beach warranted serious consideration.

Naturally it meant a road trip from Christchurch to Picton, towing the boat, launching it, and picnicing at the bay in question. A few weeks' later, a friend who'd been party to the exploratory visit asked whether they'd bought the place. Bill and Lesley had said well no, they'd decided to "be sensible". Back came an explosive retort - "What???!!"
It was enough for Bill, an artist, and Lesley, part-time English teacher, to reconsider what "sensible" actually meant. So they sold a car for additional funds, and by Easter of 1984 finally took ownership of the beautifully situated 'bach' characterised by a quirky juxtaposition of refinement and eccentric rusticity.

There were four small bedrooms and a bathroom, a kitchen, living area and a dirt-floored utility space for tools, boating and fishing gear, affectionately known as the 'dog box'. Internally, the house remains the typical Kiwi bach oxymoron. Fine china and bone-handled cutlery co-exist with a spent vinyl bus seat, knitted tea-cosies, shell collections, plus dozens of comics and 1960s' Mills & Boon paperbacks.

The nature of the dwelling, however, was and is still of little consequence. The actual location - its remoteness and beauty - surpasses everyday considerations such as whether there's electricity. There's not, but a solar roofing panel has provided the answer to a previously noisy generator, running all the lights needed and reducing 'ear' pollution to zero. Water is heated via an incinerator, and on each visit the Moores gather dead manuka from their bush tracks, along with driftwood, for brilliantly colourful evening hearth fires. A pure and steady water supply streams from the hills behind, and never dries up.

Views from the cottage are of warm-toned pebbles, the jetty, the sea, bush clad hillsides and vast amounts of sky. At night the purity of the air provides a box seat to the solar system. Sounds are of owls calling to each other, weka, and, more rarely, a possum galumphing across the roof. A clear night holds the promise of a deafening dawn chorus.
Lesley says the purchase has been an important "investment in family" and a ritual summer gathering place - a time for family, friends and no agenda. Each summer brings old mates and cousins from other bays visiting by fizz-boat or kayak, and needing no invitation.

Processions of children spend a few minutes on the cottage's deck before heading uninhibited across the bridge to the tree-swing a few 'secret' metres into the bush. Deck chairs for all are hurriedly assembled on grass adjacent to pebbly sand, setting the scene for much conversation and laughter. Those keen for exercise play a certain beach volleyball/tennis hybrid game, more popular when the tide's out because there's no repeated wading in to retrieve the ball.

"It's a place where life is so incredibly different from normal that everyone totally relaxes. It's the unspoilt beauty and peace, but also the fact there's no car or roads, no TV; just contact with the outside world via telephone and a radio," says Bill.

As well as spending time with family, for Bill this place is also about being able to fully indulge his life's work of sketching and painting. His oils, watercolours and acrylic works span a lifetime dedicated to painting and feature in many private art collections throughout New Zealand and internationally (www.wfmoore.com). He often spends hours 'working' while at 'the bay' drawing much of his inspiration from nature at its best.
Meanwhile, family and friends read, fish, swim, kayak, go for walks to the Queen Charlotte track, or just enjoy sitting in the shade of pungas, sharing a fresh fish meal peppered by plenty of jokes and stories. Perfect summer late-afternoons also carry with them a tendency for the Moores to chase the sun by swimming to a particular diving platform. Once there, they'll climb up a couple of rocks and soak up precious last rays which have already left the cottage.

Last summer Lesley and Bill's younger son Hamish flew with his family from Norway to be here for a couple of weeks. "It's been a constant for all the grandchildren, even when their daily lives have been based in changing places around the world," Lesley says. "I know that when Hamish thinks of New Zealand, he primarily thinks of 'the bay'. It's meant that home and holidays have in his mind become one and the same. It's been - and will continue to be - an incredibly special place to all of us." Liesl Johnstone